Wireless communication networks are ubiquitous in many parts of the world. Wireless communication networks are complex entities and require considerable manual effort by network operators in planning, configuring, optimizing, and maintaining the wireless access networks. These efforts can consume a great part of their operational expenditures (OPEX).
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular technology developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The air interface of the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) migration path for the future of wireless communication is the Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). One important E-UTRAN goal from the network operators' perspective is a significant reduction of the Manual effort in the deployment, configuration, and optimization phases for this future wireless access system. See Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN), “Operator Use Cases related to Self Organising Networks,” ver. 1.53, 2007-04-16, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
This involves automation of the tasks typically involved in operating a network, e.g., planning, verification—for example, by drive/walk testing—and optimization.
Currently, wireless network operators resort to planning tools to dimension and plan their networks according to a specific business strategy. The approach based on planning tools and prediction, however, is not fully accurate. Some reasons for the inaccuracies include imperfections in the geographic data used, simplifications and approximations in the applied propagation models, and changes in the environment, e.g., construction/demolition or seasonal effects (foliage changes). Furthermore, changes in the traffic distribution and user profiles can lead to inaccurate prediction results. These shortcomings force operators to continuously optimize their networks using measurements and statistics, and to perform drive/walk tests. Drive/walk testing provides a picture of the end user perception in the field and enables the operator to identify locations exhibiting poor performance and their corresponding cause (e.g., incorrect tilt or handover settings). Drive/walk tests, however, are not ideal since only a limited part of the network can be analyzed due to access restrictions and the cost and time involved. Further, only a snapshot in time of the conditions in the field is captured.
One method for overcoming these difficulties is to utilize the User Equipment (UE) to report the observed service quality along with the locations where the measurements are taken. The standardization of such UE reports is currently being carried out in 3GPP. See 3GPP TR 36.805, “Study on Minimization of drive-tests in Next Generation Networks”, Version 9.0.0, December 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. These UE reports can be used by a function which continuously monitors the network and estimates the spatial network performance, e.g., coverage and throughput. This is referred to as Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT) functionality.
In order to keep the time it takes to compile information about a service area short, an extensive number of measurement reports are needed. This means extensive load over the localization protocols and participating nodes, which can become the limiting factor, particularly when multiple UEs are performing MDT measurements.
The background section of this document is provided to place embodiments of the present disclosure in technological and operational context, to assist those of skill in the art in understanding their scope and utility. Unless explicitly identified as such, no statement herein is admitted to be prior art merely by its inclusion in the background section.